Plan UMC Overview

Plan UMC Revised is the direct result of perhaps the broadest based proposal for restructure of the general agency complex that has ever been put forward for consideration by The United Methodist Church.

An often heard critique of Plan UMC Revised is that it is the work of a small and poorly diversified group of United Methodists. A review of the history, however, demonstrates the opposite. Plan UMC Revised is deeply rooted in a very broad effort at organizational reform that was begun in 2008.

Plan UMC Revised is the direct successor of Plan UMC, the restructure plan that was adopted by almost 60% of the delegates present and voting at General Conference 2012 (GC12). The only changes of substance made in the revision were designed to correct the constitutional deficiencies identified by the Judicial Council on the last day of GC12.

At GC12 Plan UMC was formed by input from United Methodists representing many constituencies across the Church, because it was a combination of two plans, one presented to GC12 by the Connectional Table (CT), called informally the IOT Plan, and the other, Plan B, presented by an ad hoc, self chosen committee of individuals who worked cooperatively with many staff members of general agencies, representatives of the Methodist Federation for Social Action, and delegates from central conferences, predominantly from Africa.

Plan UMC was thus the direct descendant of the plan put forward by the CT on behalf of the Interim Operations Team, which was formed by the Council of Bishops and the CT working together.

The IOT grew out of the work of the Call to Action Steering Committee which was formed at the call of the Council of Bishops with the cooperation and funding of the CT in November 2009. The work of that committee was preceded by a Call to Action Committee formed by the Council of Bishops in 2008, at least in part in response to the sermon delivered at the 2008 General Conference on Wednesday morning, April 30, 2008 by Bishop Violet Fisher when she said, “We understand that this must happen if we as a denomination are committed to making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. This is a call to action. This is a call into the future.” This was probably the first formal linkage of the Call to Action with the mission statement of the Church.

The Call to Action Steering Committee report was summarized on 25Oct10 by United Methodist News Service to call for the Church to, among other things, “Consolidate program and administrative agencies, and align their work and resources with church priorities and the commitment to build vital congregations, and reconstitute them with much smaller competency-based boards of directors.” The report was submitted and signed by, among other members, current CT Executive Director Amy Valdez Barker and then and current GCORR General Secretary Erin Hawkins. That report conveyed to the Church two reports on research that had been commissioned by the Committee, the Towers Watson Report and the Apex Report. The Apex Report was the result of the only operational audit of the entire United Methodist Church ever conducted by an independent, outside entity, and the conclusions of the Call to Action Steering Committee were largely based on the results of this report.